Tuesday 12 July 2011

Bob George is awesome!

The writings of Bob George have really touched me. So I thought that I would share a few excerpts from some of his books. I hope you find them as amazing as I have...

POWER OR LIFE?
By: Bob George
I discovered why Christian service had been killing me. I already knew about the Holy Spirit; in fact, I had taught lectures about His ministry in our lives. But I always associated Him with power: giving me power to share Christ, power to understand the Bible, power to teach, power to serve. Of course, there is truth in that. But I was missing the single most important aspect of having the Holy Spirit ­ the fact that through Him I have received the very life of God.
As long as I associated the Spirit's ministry only with power, the emphasis was still on me. My prayers were most often, "God, help me to do this activity." God may have been providing some help, but I was still doing it. When I was doing it, there was no lasting joy or fulfillment, and eventually I reached a state of total burnout. Finally I learned that Christ did not come to "help" me serve God; He came to live His life through me! That is why Paul wrote:
'I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Failing to hold onto these truths, the Christian world has become so frantic in its activity that it reminds me of the well-known definition of a fanatic: "A person who redoubles his efforts after he has lost sight of his goals." Over and over we have witnessed the spectacle of people coming forward in a service to recommit their lives. In essence, they are coming down to say, "God, I'm really serious this time. This time I'll do it if it kills me!"
To them I say, "Don't worry. It will!" I know, because it killed me. We have simply not come to grips with the fact that it isn't hard to live the Christian life. It's impossible! Only Christ can live it. Our only hope is to learn that Jesus Christ did not come just to get men out of hell and into heaven; He came to get Himself out of heaven and into men!
Many Christians have been trying to ground out the Christian life on their own, resulting in failure. They cry out for God's help. I respond; a dead man doesn't need help. A dead man needs life!" Salvation is not just something that Christ did for us, but it is Jesus Christ Himself living in us.
From: Classic Christianity. Eugene: Harvest House Publishers. ©1989.

Monday 11 July 2011

The Obedience Gospel


How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? (Galatians 3:3)

The obedience gospel is probably a term you have not heard before, mostly because I just made it up. Nevertheless, although the term may not be in popular use, there are many adherents to this branch of Christianity. Most people would be more familiar with calling it a works orientated or partial law (like the ten commandments) gospel.  But anyway, I prefer the term the obedience gospel, simply because most people would admit that we are no longer under the law or that we are not saved by our own works, that we are saved by faith alone BUT... They will even go as far as professing a “come as you are” alter call, yet the second after someone has become a Christian, they get lumped with a set of rules that they are expected to keep. Go to a weekly church service or you will backslide, tithe or God won’t bless you, have a quiet time and pray daily, feed the poor etc etc. Those would be the bigger demands but you could add a thousand smaller ones to the list, speak in tongues, pray with a hat on ladies, read only this bible version, don’t listen to Christian rock music…

Now I would say that some of those are good things, some of them even are biblical. But the problem with how the “obedience” scriptures are presented today is that the focus is taken off of Christ and the Spirits work through us and put right back onto our shoulders. The first 90% of the bible shows that man simply cannot fulfill the law, and the new testament commands such as “love your enemies” and  “don’t even lust in your heart or you are guilty of adultery” don’t exactly lower the bar either. So why do we not take all this into account when reading ordinances in the New Testament? The Christian life can be highly discouraging and one can become overwhelmed with a sense of guilt and failure quite quickly when we realize that our best is not good enough.  But some people are to scared to get off the performance track because deep down inside they are still trusting in their own righteousness to tip the scales.

In my eyes the problem is simple, Christians are always trying to live their lives for God, when in reality, what God really wants is to live HIS LIFE through us! He is the only one capable of living the Christ life, and our part is simple, it’s up to us to “die to self” and submit control to Him. Jesus was not impressed with the external purity exhibited by the Pharisees, in Mathew 7 there are people who say “Lord Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name? They had obedience down, but Jesus replies and says ”I never knew you”.

I have a view of the ordinances and so on in the bible not so much as being commands, but promises to those who submit control to God. In other words, what we read as a list of rules and regulations should rather be viewed as fruits in a God controlled life. If my life is not one that shows love and compassion, then it’s not that I need to try harder, but a sign that there is something wrong with my relationship with Christ. This is not making excuses for rebellion, but lifting the burden of righteousness off of our shoulders and having Christ’s righteousness counted toward us and even lived out through us.

If you love me, you will keep my commands. (1 Jn 2:3, Joh 14:15)

I will give you a new heart and put my Spirit in you, causing you to be guided my rules (Ez 36:26-27)

Notice also, how Paul’s emphasis is not on the advise he gives about how to live in victory, but rather on reckoning ourselves to be dead but alive in Christ (excerpts from Romans 6 and Galatians 2 and 6.

Galatians 6

 11-13These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ's suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don't keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!

 14-16For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can't you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!

 17Quite frankly, I don't want to be bothered anymore by these disputes. I have far more important things to do—the serious living of this faith. I bear in my body scars from my service to Jesus.

Romans 6

 1-3 So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!

 3-5 That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country.

 6-11 Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did.

 12-14 That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God.

 15-18 So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!

Galatians 2

 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. I live life in this body I live by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  To go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God. I refuse to do that, to reject God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.   (Galatians 2:19-21)

Sunday 10 July 2011

Fear and trembling

Kind of read this and adjusted it from another blog. Really awesome though.

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

That’s a scripture that ,for most people, has been drilled into us for years, but what happens when we read the next verse as well…

Php 2:13  For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

The Greek word for trembling in Strong's is defined as: "used to describe the anxiety of one who distrusts his ability completely to meet all requirements, but devotedly does his utmost to fulfill his duty."
Philippians 2:12-13 (with trembling substituted for its definition):

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with reverence and an anxiety that distrusts your own ability to completely meet all the requirements; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."

We most certainly must distrust our own ability to meet ALL requirements, our "duty" is to surrender control and trust the God who is at work in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure. We are indeed His workmanship and "in deed" His workmanship.

Monday 4 July 2011

Life

Hi all

I know I was busy writing on the church, and in particular, the bride of Christ. But life got busy and hopefully I can get back to that soon. But I wanted to share on something else as well. There is a general problem within the body in that our focus has shifted from Christ to things, namely ethics, morals, commands, sin etc. Not that these are not topics worthy of conversation or reflection, they simply have taken precedence over the foundational principles of the gospel, resulting in busy and burnt out followers motivated by good intentions, rather than the Spirit.

PS – I know I always raise a few eyebrows. I have assumed some foundational understandings which I have not touched upon below. Ie Importance of studying scripture, dealing with sin, why the law was given to Israel etc. Therefore I am not attacking those things. I am merely drawing the outer lines where others have coloured in already. Hope it blesses you all.

1Co 15:45  So also it has been written, "The" first "man", Adam, "became a living soul;" the last Adam a life-giving Spirit. Gen. 2:7

It starts with 2 trees

Gen 2:8  And the Lord God made a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man who he had made.
Gen 2:9  And out of the earth the Lord made every tree to come, delighting the eye and good for food; and in the middle of the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

In the very beginning God made a garden with 2 particular trees in it. Everyone knows that Adam and Eve ate from the one they were warned to stay away from, but nothing is ever said about the tree of life. Have you ever thought of the fact that before eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve had no knowledge of good and evil? Let that soak in. And not only that, but there was absolutely no need for God to give them laws of “thou shalt and thou shalt not”. Instead, Adam and Eve could freely partake of the tree of life, in other words, they fully relied on God to decide right from wrong while they partook from his life, and their behavior simply mirrored their creators. The first 2 humans literally bore the image of God!

Gen 1:27  And God made man in his image, in the image of God he made him: male and female he made them.

It is a common misconception that men today still bear the image of God. But what exactly was God warning them of when he said that if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would surely die? It certainly wasn’t physical, so it must have been a spiritual death. In other words, man would no longer bear Gods image in the day that they chose to become independent from their creator.

Gen 5:3  Adam had been living for a hundred and thirty years when he had a son in his likeness, after his image, and gave him the name of Seth:

1Co 15:48  Such as is the earthy man, such also are the earthy ones. And such as is the heavenly Man, such also are the heavenly ones.
1Co 15:49  And as we bore the image of the earthy man, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

So mans ultimate problem is not that he is a sinner, but that he is born spiritually dead and birthed in the image of Adam. Sin is a symptom, but death is the disease. Death may have first entered the earth through one man’s sin, but since then death has reigned through all men, with sin being the only logical fruit in a fallen world. Much like someone who dies of cancer. If you found a cure for cancer, the man would still be dead. Likewise, if you could give him life again, he would still have cancer and die soon again. Sin is half the problem, Death is the other half. That is why Christ could not just die for our sins, but he had to be resurrected that we could have life, more specifically, his life!


Rom 5:14  But still death had power from Adam till Moses, even over those who had not done wrong like Adam, who is a picture of him who was to come.

That is why it was vital that Jesus was born of a virgin, he could not inherit Adams seed. So who’s seed and image was Jesus born with?

Mat 1:18  And the birth of Jesus Christ was this way (for His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph) before the coming together of them, she was found having babe in womb by the Holy Spirit.

If we go back to the thought about Adam and Eve relying completely on God to not only decide good and evil, but that they were alive in Gods likeness, and therefore able to bear his image without need of a law or the will to try and fulfill one. We begin to understand how utterly dependant Jesus was on the Father to live the sinless, others centered life which he did. He would even say things like “ without my Father I can do nothing”, and to Phillip who asked to see the Father he replied, “If you have seeing me , you have seeing the Father”. What he is saying is that he bore his Fathers image (Heb 1:3  who being the shining splendor of His glory, and the express image of His essence…).

The point I am stressing here is that the law, although good, was given to a fallen man. Those born of the Spirit, not only are not bound by it, they don’t even need it. Any attempt to keep the law in our own strength always results in failure and simply points us back to the fact that in and of ourselves we simply cannot fulfill it. Even the New Testament commands cannot be kept in our own strength. Remember those WWJD bracelets? It’s a recipe for failure because only Christ is capable of living the Christ life. If Jesus could do nothing in and of himself without the Father, why do we expect to do any better? As long as we choose to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life we will fail. How many of us stand on scripture and study the bible hoping that some doctrine or revelation will give us some sort of breakthrough? Unless that revelation points to Christ and a clear understanding of who we are in Him and a total surrender to his life in us, the knowledge may be interesting  but it won’t bring forth real fruit.

2Co 3:6  who also made us able ministers of a new covenant, not of letter, but of Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive.

The solution

Rev 2:7  He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give of the fruit of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.

So much emphasis today is been placed on overcoming sin and dying to self. This is great and true but only half a gospel, because even the Hindus are great at dying to self. I once saw a Hindu man who had kept his hand above his head for over twenty years! It was shriveled and useless. Self denial means nothing if it is not filled with Christ’s life. The full picture of the gospel must include life. Remember the blood and water that poured out of Jesus side? It is the blood that has dealt with our sins, but it is the living water that enables us to bear the image of God. To use a silly illustration, let’s say carrots represent sin. Now what if I told you to try not to think of carrots for the next 30 seconds? You can’t do it. But what if I tell you to think about water for 30 seconds? All of a sudden the chances that I will catch you thinking about carrots becomes very slim. It’s not enough to die to self; we have to live in Christ.

So how do we partake of the tree of life?

Consider the interesting imagery Jesus uses in John 15.

Joh 15:1  I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.
Joh 15:2  Every branch in Me not bearing fruit, He takes it away; and each one bearing fruit, He prunes, so that it may bear more fruit.
Joh 15:3  You are already pruned because of the Word which I have spoken to you.
Joh 15:4  Remain in Me, and I in you. As the branch is not able to bear fruit of itself, unless it remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.
Joh 15:5  I am the Vine; you are the branches. The one abiding in Me, and I in him, this one bears much fruit, because apart from Me you are not able to execute, nothing.
Joh 15:6  Unless one remains in Me, he is cast out as the branch and is dried up; and they gather and throw them into a fire, and they are burned.
Joh 15:7  If you remain in Me, and My Words remain in you, whatever you desire you will ask, and it shall happen to you.
Joh 15:8  In this My Father is glorified, that you should bear much fruit; and you will be disciples to Me.

You see how we (the branches) cannot bear any fruit of ourselves, our job is simply to abide in him and let him bear fruit in us. Break off a tree branch and see how quickly it will wither. I remember sitting through countless sermons on the fruits of the spirit when all we needed to hear was abide in Christ and he will take care of the rest. Once we see where our life comes from, you will find it popping up all over scripture.

Joh 10:10  The thief comes only to take the sheep and to put them to death: he comes for their destruction: I have come so that they may have life and have it in greater measure.

Gal 2:20  I have been put to death on the cross with Christ; still I am living; no longer I, but Christ is living in me; and that life which I now am living in the flesh I am living by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who in love for me, gave himself up for me.

Rom 5:10  For if, when we were haters of God, the death of his Son made us at peace with him, much more, now that we are his friends, will we have salvation through his life;

Col 2:13  And you, being dead through your sins and the evil condition of your flesh, to you, I say, he gave life together with him, and forgiveness of all our sins;
Col 2:14  Having put an end to the handwriting of the law which was against us, taking it out of the way by nailing it to his cross;

Col 3:1  If then you have a new life with Christ, give your attention to the things of heaven, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Col 3:2  Keep your mind on the higher things, not on the things of earth.
Col 3:3  For your life on earth is done, and you have a secret life with Christ in God.


2Pe 1:1  Simon Peter, a servant and Apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who with us have a part in the same holy faith in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2Pe 1:2  May grace and peace ever be increasing in you, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
2Pe 1:3  Because by his power he has given us everything necessary for life and righteousness, through the knowledge of him who has been our guide by his glory and virtue;
2Pe 1:4  And through this he has given us the hope of great rewards highly to be valued; so that by them we might have our part in God's being, and be made free from the destruction which is in the world through the desires of the flesh.
2Pe 1:5  So, for this very cause, take every care; joining virtue to faith, and knowledge to virtue,

Notice from the above verses that we have already being given this life. It’s not waiting for us in heaven. We have full access to the vine now. If we want to live like Adam in the garden or Christ did on earth, we MUST abide in the vine. How do we do that? By renewing our minds daily, instead of trying not to think about carrots, think about water. The scriptures of full of this teaching

1Ti 6:2  And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service.
1Ti 4:7  But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
Eph 4:28  Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour,

When we are consumed with Christ his life will flow through us and his desires will automatically be fulfilled through us.. Likewise, being consumed with law, commands and doctrines can lead to us “being as gods” as the serpent put it. This is why the most knowledgeable theologians are often the most unloving and divisive people around, modern day Pharisees so to speak.

Let me end with words from Revelation 22, a chapter that shares much similarity to Genesis 2.

Rev 22:1  And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Rev 22:2  In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Wes

Christ and his bride part 2

Rebekah and Isaac

Rebekah and Isaac are another wonderful picture of Christ and the church, actually , the whole trinity is pictured in Genesis 24. Abraham is a picture of the Father, and the servant is a picture of the Holy Spirit. Because the story is fairly long, I have kept only a few verses below to illustrate some points, but you can go and read the whole story in Genesis 24 in your own time.


Gen 24

And Abraham said to his chief servant, … take an oath by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not get a wife for my son Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am living; But that you will go into my country and to my relations and get a wife there for my son Isaac.
And if the woman will not come with you, then you are free from this oath; only do not take my son back there.
And the servant took ten of his master's camels, and all sorts of good things of his master's, and went to Mesopotamia, to the town of Nahor.
And he made the camels take their rest outside the town by the water-spring in the evening, at the time when the women came to get water.

(Later)Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, who was the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her water-vessel on her arm.
She was a very beautiful girl, a virgin, who had never been touched by a man: and she went down to the spring to get water in her vessel.
And the servant came running to her and said, Give me a little water from your vessel.
And she said, Take a drink, my lord: and quickly letting down her vessel onto her hand, she gave him a drink.
And when the camels had had enough, the man took a gold nose-ring, half a shekel in weight, and two ornaments for her arms of ten shekels weight of gold;
And said to her, Whose daughter are you? is there room in your father's house for us?
And she said to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, Nahor's wife.
And she said, We have a great store of dry grass and cattle-food, and there is room for you.
And with bent head the man gave worship to the Lord;

The Lord has given my master every blessing, and he has become great: he has given him flocks and herds and silver and gold, and men-servants and women-servants and camels and asses.
And when Sarah, my master's wife, was old, she gave birth to a son, to whom he has given all he has…
And now, say if you will do what is good and right for my master or not, in order that it may be clear to me what I have to do.
Then Laban and Bethuel said in answer, This is the Lord's doing: it is not for us to say Yes or No to you.
See, here is Rebekah: take her and go, and let her be your master's son's wife, as the Lord has said.
And at these words, Abraham's servant went down on his face and gave praise to the Lord.

Then he took jewels of silver and jewels of gold and fair robes and gave them to Rebekah: and he gave things of value to her mother and her brother.
Then he and the men who were with him had food and drink, and took their rest there that night; and in the morning he got up, and said, Let me now go back to my master.
But her brother and her mother said, Let the girl be with us a week or ten days, and then she may go.
And he said, Do not keep me; the Lord has given a good outcome to my journey; let me now go back to my master.
And they said, We will send for the girl, and let her make the decision.
And they sent for Rebekah and said to her, Are you ready to go with this man? And she said, I am ready.

So they sent their sister Rebekah and her servant with Abraham's servant and his men.
Now Isaac had come through the waste land to Beer-lahai-roi; for he was living in the South.
And when the evening was near, he went wandering out into the fields, and lifting up his eyes he saw camels coming.
And when Rebekah, looking up, saw Isaac, she got down from her camel,
And said to the servant, Who is that man coming to us through the field? And the servant said, It is my master: then she took her veil, covering her face with it.
Then the servant gave Isaac the story of all he had done.
And Isaac took Rebekah into his tent and she became his wife; and in his love for her, Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

The bride of Christ

Hi all

I have been going through some of the pictures of Christ and the church (his bride) in the bible. Thought I would share them as I go along as they are really awesome. I believe this will help us understand our corporate position more clearly as opposed to the institutional understanding of what the church is. Hopefully they wont be sent to far apart, depends whenever I get a gap at home or at work to write them up. The story of Christ and his bride is a common theme throughout the bible from beginning to end, in the old testament we see many types as shown with Adam and Eve below (many others to follow). In the New Testament it becomes clearer like when John the Baptist refers to Christ as the bridegroom.

Joh 3:29  he who is having the bride is (the) bridegroom, and the friend of the bridegroom, who is standing and hearing him, with joy doth rejoice because of the voice of the bridegroom; this, then, my joy hath been fulfilled.

Jesus refers to himself in the same manner.

Mat 9:15  And Jesus said to them, `Can the sons of the bride-chamber mourn, so long as the bridegroom is with them? but days shall come when the bridegroom may be taken from them, and then they shall fast.

He also told many parables regarding the bride, bridesmaids etc, and then more directly, we read about the marriage supper of the lamb when the church is wed to Christ.

Rev 19:9  And he saith to me, `Write: Happy are they who to the supper of the marriage of the Lamb have been called;' and he saith to me, `These are the true words of God;'

So here is the first type, I have shared on Adam and Eve with most of you already so bare with me for part one.

Gen 2:18  And Jehovah God said, It is not good, the man being alone. I will make a helper suited to him.

The man (Adam), is a representation of Christ (Rom 5:14), likewise, the bible is the story of Christ and his bride. From beginning to end it tells us the story of a Father finding a bride for His son. Why would Christ need a bride? Simply because love needs an expression. Even though Christ knew that much of mankind would reject Him, true love is always risky and allows itself to be vulnerable.

Gen 2:19  And Jehovah God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the heavens out of the ground. And He brought them to the man, to see what he would call it. And all which the man might call it, each living soul, that was its name.

Gen 2:20  And the man called names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every animal of the field. But no helper suited to him was found for a man.

No animal shared the same nature or DNA as Adam, God would eventually create him a help meet out Adams very own self.

Gen 2:21  And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept. In like manner, Jesus slept 3 days And He took one of his ribs, and was pierced and opened up in his side (John 19:37) and closed up the flesh underneath.

Gen 2:22  And Jehovah God formed the rib which He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man.

Gal 4:19  my little children, of whom again I travail in birth, till Christ may be formed in you,

Gen 2:23  And the man said, This now at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh. For this shall be called Woman, because this has been taken out of man.

Eph 5:30  because members we are of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones;

Gen 2:24  Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife and they shall become one flesh.

Eph 5:31  "For this, a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh."

Eph 5:32  The mystery is great, but I speak as to Christ and as to the assembly.

Gen 2:25  And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.

Would love to hear from you guys if you think I miss something, misrepresent something, or would just like to add to what’s being written. Enjoy your day!